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Netflix and chow: what to binge-eat when you binge-watch

Whether you’re surfing Netflix or Showmax, or watching good old fashioned television, we’ve got you covered. Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash.

Planning a weekend in, need a night off from partying or just want something to nibble for your regularly scheduled TV time? We can relate. Obviously we have an affinity for eating out, but we’d be lying if we said we didn’t enjoy curling up on our couches with great food and binge-watching our favourite series. Thankfully there are some quality restaurants that enable us, preparing their delicious dishes as takeaways.

So whether you’re streaming Showmax, Netflix or watching good old television, these are the restaurants in SA’s biggest cities where you can call in an order, collect it, and get comfy at home with some excellent food.

On these shows, breakfast is a big deal. Who could forget Dexter’s violently gastronomic opening sequence or the huge breakfasts of the Humphrey family? There’s a reason Walter Jr is obsessed with breakfast, Eleven loves waffles, and the ladies of Big Little Lies and Sex and the City brunch seemingly every morning. Breakfast is a sacred meal and should by no means ever be limited to mornings, particularly since some really great breakfast spots also offer takeaways.

Friends

When the gang wasn’t lounging around at Central Perk, they were sharing a huge box of New York-style pizza, meaning you can’t do a proper Friends re-watch without a slice. These are the places to order pizzas that would make even Joey Tribbiani happy.

Gilmore Girls

You’d be hard-pressed to find an episode of Gilmore girls that doesn’t feature one or both of the girls heading into Luke’s Diner for a burger, pancakes or both. Trust us, you can’t watch this show hungry, so head out to these restaurants for a diner food hit of your own.

Grey’s Anatomy and Being Mary Jane

Mary Jane loves baking for her family – the opening scene is of her baking a cake before Andre shows up. As for Grey’s Anatomy, everybody knows to watch this show is to finish a box of tissues. May we suggest swapping those out for something sweet and possibly an entire bottle of wine? Binge-watching calories don’t count. (Right?)

Steak is the name of the game here – the bloodier, the better. While we can’t quite offer up the type of meat preferred by the lead characters in these shows, here are the steakhouses where you can find something just as good.

House and Pretty Little Liars

Trust us: you never want to be watching House MD with anything that might add even slightly to all the inevitable health-related paranoia. With the very first episode kicking off with a parasite found in pork and the medical team constantly quizzing patients about what they’ve eaten, you’ll want to be munching on the healthiest foods you can get your hands on. As for Pretty Little Liars, the girls on the show are infamous for never eating more than a carrot tip here or a bite of cucumber there. The running joke in the first season is that they evidently never eat pasta since Hanna’s mother is able to hide something inside the box of lasagne.

Look, unless you’ve been a fan of the comics for decades, it’s likely that you got into superhero shows because of the hype around the movies. No judgement here. If that’s the case, settle back on the couch with food from one of these trendy spots.

Suits

Set in New York, Season 1 of Suits had Mike and Harvey constantly stopping at vendors outside Pearson Hardman to grab a hotdog or cream cheese-stuffed bagel. Here’s where to get yours. (Also make sure to check out our ultimate food truck list.)

UnREAL

Life on the fast-paced set of Everlasting is tough for Quinn and Rachel, meaning they need their food on the go. If you really want to feel like a reality TV producer, get eats from one of these food trucks all over SA.